3 Important Fostering Facts

Many people are completely unaware of what goes on behind the scenes in the life of foster parents and children until they become one of the two themselves. We think it’s important to pull back the veil from the eyes of the public so that they can see how much help is needed in a vastly overworked and underpaid system. If more people flooded in to help these children and parents, many of these problems listed would be nonexistent.

1. Social and Case Workers are extremely overworked.

There are plenty of outdated stereotypes surrounding caseworkers that do more harm than good. The problem is, that many of them are still true. They are vastly overworked and often do not see much fruit from their labor. They work long hours and can be assigned up to 50 kids to watch out for at a time. The caseworkers are REQUIRED to visit each of those children in their place of residence once a month as well as visiting their birth parents. Did we mention they also coordinate meeting and services for the children and parents?

2. The First Goal of the System is to Reunite kids with the Parents

The easiest and quickest way to get a kid out of the system is for their parents to take them back in. The problem with this is that foster families MUST have their home under constant scrutiny, they must have things like a “fire escape plan” “pool rules” and other safety measures (that are all good) but put into perspective that for a parent or family member to keep the child, they don’t even have to have electricity. Many children who get stuck with family members see the bad things that their parents are doing, and don’t have a better perspective to see what is right and wrong.

3. Group Homes are becoming more of an Option

Due to the small number of foster parents and caseworkers, children are often put into a group setting. This is basically a modern-day orphanage. They are 10 times more expensive than putting a child in the family and lack adequate support for the children in their care.

YOU CAN HELP. If you have a love for kids, become a foster parent! If you know foster parents, offer them your help!